In 1971, Horace Holden struck up a conversation with the owner of the Tote ‘n Tarry motel located along the Nantahala River in Wesser. According to Payson Kennedy, Holden asked in a half-joking manner if the proprietor was interested in selling the Tote ‘n Tarry. The answer, it turned out, was yes.

A year later Holden, along with Payson and Aurelia Kennedy, opened the Nantahala Outdoor Center.

NOC quickly became synonymous with whitewater in Western North Carolina. Like a kayaker shooting the Class V Bull Sluice on Section III of the Chattooga River, it established itself as one of the premier outfitters in the country. It also became one of the major economic engines in Western North Carolina, employing up to 120 full-time workers and another 550 seasonal employees.

According to Kennedy, that wasn’t necessarily the master plan back in the early 70s.

Kennedy, a former faculty member at Georgia Tech who loved to spend his weekends paddling and exploring the mountains of WNC, said it was more like “trying to think of a way we wouldn’t have to leave the mountains every weekend and go back to Atlanta.” Kennedy and Holden dreamed up a business that would include all the activities they enjoyed. He said they decided in the beginning that NOC would not be a traditional business but rather a group of friends working together. They decided in 1976 to create an employee-owned company.

Mark Singleton, NOC’s marketing director, said the idea was to encourage staff members to think like owners to insure customers received the best possible service. The fledgling company regaled in the close-knit kinship, and the camaraderie spilled over to provide the kind of personal attention the founders envisioned.

NOC caught the crest of the whitewater wave and rode it through the 80s and early 90s. The company capitalized on its early success and expanded and diversified. Relia’s Garden Restaurant opened in 1988, rope courses had been installed, mountain biking was becoming more prominent and the company was featuring more adventure trips to exotic paddling destinations like Chile and Costa Rica.

NOC received even more notoriety in 1992 when local paddlers Scott Strausbaugh and Joe Jacobi won a gold medal in the Barcelona Olympics. This whitewater fever continued to rise as the region prepared for the 1996 Olympic paddling events on the Ocoee.

Then, according to Singleton, river sports plateaued.

Nantahala National Forest figures for 1996-2000 reflect this plateau. The number of paid paddlers was 208,000 in 1996, 219,000 in 1999, and 202,000 in 2000.

According to current CEO David Ennis, it was common for NOC to budget for an annual 10 percent revenue growth during those years. But as river activity and revenue growth began to level, NOC had to come to grips with reality.

Singleton said the reality is that Wesser and NOC are not insulated from what’s happening throughout the rafting and tourist industry.

“We’re up against a maturing industry. The dilemma is how to create a sustainable business model around that plateauing,” Singleton said.

This transition has not been without its jolts. A few jobs have been reduced, and NOC now employs 100 full-time workers (down from 120) and about 520 seasonal (down from 550).

For years the names Bunny Johns and NOC were inseparable. However, in October 2000 they separated. Johns had been with the company since 1974 and served as its president and CEO from 1991 to 2000.

Singleton said as the board began to assess ways to streamline, its vision and Johns’ vision became more disparate. He said it was regrettable because Johns had been such an integral part of the success at NOC. But he said it’s not uncommon in the executive world for differences in opinion to become impasses.

For her part, Johns said that every president serves at the pleasure of the board. When it’s no longer a pleasure, it’s time to separate. She now works as a consultant for Duke Power.

There were more changes in store for NOC. David Ennis, who served on the board, stepped in as CEO and, according to Singleton, the first round of restructuring began.

“Some senior level VP jobs were cut and all the call centers were consolidated. We used to have different call centers for the different programs like instruction, rafting and adventure travel. They’ve all been consolidated in one call center, under one manager,” Singleton said.

Other restructuring includes exiting the Asheville retail market.

“Our lease at our Asheville store is up in February and we won’t be renewing,” Singleton said.

Singleton said the company is also changing its Action Learning focus. NOC will no longer be doing leadership programs for Fortune 500 companies. The economic downturn across the country has trimmed those companies human resources budgets, he said. NOC will focus its Action Learning on schools, colleges and church groups.

NOC’s Adventure Travel program will also be scaled back. It will become a part of the instructional programs.

“The overseas travel market has become quite saturated. We used to be the only player on the block for specific whitewater trips. While the market has grown, market share has declined because of all the companies offering trips.” Singleton said.

Other changes include increased partnership with the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. The old River Left Store has now become the NOC Depot. The NOC Instruction program is offering a brand new product called Rapid Progressions where participants are guaranteed success.

Enrolled guests will be given a list of skills required to master whatever particular course they sign up for. Instructors will review guest’s lists, discuss goals and work with guests to accomplish those goals. If, at the end of the course, guests have not mastered the skills on their list, they can retake the course for free or, if the guest decides the course just isn’t for them, instructional fees will be refunded.

Singleton feels the Rapid Progressions program will be “a huge opportunity to introduce people to paddling.”

One of the issues before the board and the employee owners as restructuring began to take place was the fate of about 450 acres of property NOC owned. The rumor mill ground furiously with stories of development and stories of sales.

Singleton says present plans for the property include expanding the already begun mountain bike trails.

“We hope to expand the mountain bike complex and ultimately use it as the course for our annual Knob Scorcher race,” he said.

There was also a recent wrinkle in the employee ownership. The old ESOP (employee stock option plan) of 1976 became KSOP in 1990. According to Singleton, KSOP is a hybrid 401K and employee stock option.

At a recent “town hall” employee meeting, the KSOP was frozen. Ennis said this would save the company between $100,000 and $150,000 in administrative costs and matching funds, which could go back into the company.

“The plan is still there. Employees still own the assets. Employees just aren’t contributing now,” Ennis said. He noted that the three major U.S. auto manufacturers had recently implemented the same type of policy.

But according to Singleton, the company is still 95 percent employee owned. This includes KSOP, founder shares and previous ESOP members. Sixty-three percent of the company is in KSOP, Singleton said.

Singleton is keen on the future of NOC. He said there are incredible river resources yet to be tapped on the Nantahala.

“The area below the takeout could be enhanced to create a prime whitewater venue,” Singleton said. He said the site would be well suited for elite slalom, elite rodeo and world-class freestyle.

According to Singleton, the restructuring at NOC doesn’t reflect a change in philosophy, but rather reflects more of a market-driven approach to business.

“We’ll be doing the same things we’ve always done, but where we’re headed is to try and shape products and services in outdoor recreation that fit into a contemporary business corridor.”

NOC is not in peril of collapsing, he said. The company has had to leave some markets — like Asheville, — and it’s had to roll Adventure Travel into instructional programs, but business is evolution, he said.

“We’ve been such a stable company for 30 years that any shake up looks major to people on the outside and some on the inside,” Singleton said.

He said NOC has every intention of remaining one of the premier outfitters in the world. “There aren’t many outfitters out there that cover the scope of what we cover, from advanced rafting, to mountain biking to instruction.

“What we’re forced to do now is evolve at the rate of business.”

But for the old-timers, the river is still king.

“I don’t go to the office anymore,” said Kennedy, one of the original founders, “but I still guide about three days a week during the season.”

 

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The Smoky Mountain News